Women's Euros kick off amid momentum; college leaders may go sleepless in July; more division in men's golf; and the Grier family's legacy in sports.
We continue in a holiday week with your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, July 6th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour, hope everybody is doing well. We talk a lot about the growing interest and investment in women's sports and the Women's EURO will be another good indicator of that growth. The Women's European Championship is a 3.5 week tournament that opens with the host, England's match against Austria tonight, Wednesday night. The New York Times has a good setup to the tournament that is worth a read and it indicates how popular this event should be in England. The women's team is very competitive and a fan favorite. They are featured in marketing spots across the country. The matches for England's games in the early stage rounds are already sold out. The BBC will air every one of the tournaments games on its channels or streaming platforms. And more than 500,000 tickets to the overall tournament have already been sold, which means attendance for this year's Women's EUROs will be more than double that of the last tournament, the 2017 event, in the Netherlands.
So bottom line, this is an event to watch and it should continue the strong year we've been seeing in women's sports. There's not enough time on the Buzzcast to go over every permutation, a possible college realignment. So I'm going to hold tight on that. But let's just say that there is every scenario possible out there, and it shows just how dynamic and how tenuous and how unknown this situation and the current environment really is. Let's just say, the leaders in college sports are not getting much rest these days. But in some specific news, the Pac-12 Board of Directors did authorize the conference to begin negotiations for its next media deal. Now the Pac-12's current media deal expires in the summer of 2024, which is when USC and UCLA will leave for the Big Ten. So why would you think they would move forward with a media rights' deal knowing that the conference is going to get weaker by losing USC and UCLA?
Well, those close to the situation, including Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, believes that this move allows the Pac-12 to get specific offers from network partners, and they will be able to present them to the 10 remaining schools in the conference. Pac-12 commissioner, George Kliavkoff, could also use those offers to then think about possible expansion and mergers or alliances with other conferences. So this will give him and the Pac-12 a baseline to work off. So no timeline has been given for the Pac-12 to reach a new media deal. And of course the big wild card in all this realignment is Notre Dame and SBJ's Michael Smith outlines that institution's possible options. And last night's SBJ college newsletter, which is really worth a read because it does outline specific areas and specific options for the Fighting Irish. Let's move on.
We've also talked on the Buzzcast about possible teams for sale, and the ones that come up often are the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks. But on Tuesday, team chair, Jody Allen, issued a surprising statement indicating that neither club is for sale and there are no ongoing sale discussions. Allen admitted, "There would be a time when the teams will be sold, but that there's no set timeline for the sales of either the Blazers or the Seahawks." Now Allen's statement comes about a month after the Blazers confirm that Nike founder, Phil Knight, made an offer with a partner to buy the team reportedly for more than $2 billion. Now there was some sentiment among the people I speak with that the Blazers could have been sold within the next six to 12 months, but Jody Allen's statement seems to pour cold water on that idea. So we may have to wait a bit for possible majority control situations in any team sale to come to fruition. But people will continue to watch and keep an eye on both the Trail Blazers and the Seahawks.
I know we talk a lot about it on the Buzzcast, but do you want more evidence of the tensions and divisions in men's professional golf and the impact of LIV Golf versus the PGA Tour? Well, how about the comments made by Billy Horschel who has made clear his alliance to the PGA Tour. Now he sharply criticized players earlier this week who have joined LIV Golf, saying that those players have made their bed and shouldn't be allowed to play on the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour. He called their positions "completely asinine". He called many of the players "hypocrites that aren't telling the truth and that are lying about some things. I just can't stand to sit here anymore and be diplomatic about it." There are some real fishers in the relationships on the tour and among men's professional golfers, and Horschel's comments really indicate that.
And I do believe you'll see more players taking sides and speaking out. And many people think that these last few months have divided the golf world more than anything they have ever seen. Let's move on to some agent news, which we don't cover much on the Buzzcast. But Roc Nation, the agency led by Jay-Z, has beefed up its football division. Agent Erik Burkhardt who represents Cardinal's quarterback, Kyler Murray, among other NFL players has joined Roc Nation Sports as co-head of football. He will work out of Dallas and he'll run the NFL players and coaches representation practice at Roc Nation football, along with co-heads and NFL agents, Kim Miale and John Thornton. Roc Nation has a nice football practice and now it's likely that the bulk of Burkhardt's clients will join him at Roc Nation and make that football roster even stronger. Now Burkhardt was one of the founders of Select Sports Group.
He joined ICM sports division in 2021, but he was not part of CAA Sports or CAA's acquisition of ICM, which was completed last week. That deal with ICM saw CAA Sports get much stronger in its soccer representation practice. But now Roc Nation beefs up its football division by bringing on agent Erik Burkhardt. And finally, the San Jose Sharks made history on Tuesday, naming Mike Grier as their general manager, making him the first Black person to serve in that role for an NHL team. Now, Mike Grier acknowledged and hopes that his ascension to the general manager post opens the door for other minorities to get positions in front offices across sports. Mike Grier served as a hockey operations advisor for the Rangers last season. He earlier worked as a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks. Now this is a great story, because Mike Grier comes from a very well regarded family and sports player personnel.
His brother, Chris Grier, serves as general manager of the Miami Dolphins. I remember their father Bobby Grier. He was a longtime player personnel executive for the New England Patriots. He then went onto the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins. So the Grier family very well represented in the sports' business and Mike Grier becomes the first Black person to be named general manager of an NHL team and leading the San Jose Sharks. So that is your morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, July 6th. I hope everybody has a great day. I'm Abe Madkour. Stay healthy. Please be good to each other and I'll speak to you tomorrow.